with the rest of the region, took a new lease of life. A committee of
Germans came from Chicago seeking a place for a colony of their
compatriots, and were guided by Mr. Rudd until they hit upon the Wet
Mountain Valley and located Walsenburg. A little later, hopes of a
railway cheered the hearts of the southern Coloradoans. The Kansas
Pacific Company sent engineers up the Arkansas to locate their road
across the range. They surveyed to this point, estimated upon the cost
of grading through the cañon, and over the range by two or three routes.
Then they abandoned the locality and deflected to Denver. This was no
sooner done than reports of the advance of the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe came to cheer the citizens, but disappointment ensued until
early in the last decade the Denver and Rio Grande staked out their
narrow gauge, and had the cars running regularly hither by the Spring of
1874.
All this time the town was slowly progressing and its vicinity being
taken up for ranches, claimed for coal lands, quarried for
building-stone and lime, and prospected for the precious metals. In 1879
came a "boom." Leadville flashed into sight and the Rosita and Silver
Cliff district sprang to the front to rival it in excitement. To both
these centers of rushing crowd Cañon City was one point of ingress. The
town suddenly became thronged with men and women who were straining
every nerve to get into the new regions, and with the undertow of a
returning army of men disgusted with their reception and ill-luck, or
jubilant over quick success, or going east only to return with machinery
or goods or more money and friends.
To the task of catching toll from this careless, hurrying, fat-pocketed
stream of humanity Cañon City set herself. The hotels charged big
prices, lodging houses started up right and left, restaurants and
boarding tents thrust out their signs every few steps, merchants urged
your renewing your outfit at their replenished counters, and every form
of wild amusement led to revelry and hideous headaches. Of all the wild
towns it has been my fortune to see in the West, I think the Cañon City
of those days was the worst. Ruffianism was the only fashionable thing,
seemingly, and from the tangle-headed, dusty and drunken bull-whacker or
the professional card-sharper to the staid old citizen, everybody had
caught the spirit of a grand spree and the devil reigned.
But the railway was at last built through the cañon, the loud-swearing,
quick-shooting teamsters followed their principals to the end of the
track at Cleora, Salida, Buena Vista, and so on to Leadville itself; the
gamblers and dance-houses and harlots followed; the host of railway
laborers no longer made the village streets scenes of debauchery, and
the town counted its gains, reckoned the loss its manners and morals had
suffered, and returned to its normal quiet.
But its waking up had set its blood flowing faster and it has been a
live town ever since, growing steadily, making public improvements,
building houses and finding occupants faster than they could be put up,
and all without any fictitious excitement.
It is for its coal mines--and these are half a dozen miles
eastward--that Cañon City has the highest repute, however, and to these
it owes much of its prosperity. They are the property of the ubiquitous
Coal and Iron Company, who supply from here a large part of the
fuel--and of the hardest and cleanest quality--used in the household all
over the state. The railway consumes a great quantity too, for it has
long been recognized as the best steam-maker. Two veins are now worked,
one five feet and the other four feet in thickness. The mines are worked
by slopes furnished with steam hoisters. The Coal Creek mine has been in
operation for nine years. The company has recently opened two new slopes
at Oak Creek, and are prepared to furnish 1,500 tons of coal per day
from them. The total annual output of these mines is about 125,000 tons.
The following are the analyses of these coals:
Water 4.50 6.15
Volatile Matter 34.20 36.03
Fixed Carbon 56.80 52.82
Ash 4.50 5.00
----- -----
Total 100 100
Sulphur .65
Everybody will understand from this statement that this coal is
worthless for coking, but most desirable as fuel. Our cook will swear to
this, but declines to tell how much he stole at various times for
culinary use.
Withal, Cañon City is a pretty town; one of the pleasantest places to
live in in Colorado. Rows of large trees shade all the side-walks (and
they are side-walks of planking, not mere gravel paths), and the ample
spaces left about each house are filled with fruit trees, flowers and
garden vegetables. To go into such a garden as one I visited in town is
a surprise. A picturesquely built house, its adobe walls hidden by much
climbing vinery, has its porch turned into a thickly-leaved bower by
masses upon masses of clematis, whose white, thistly puffs of seed-down,
each as large as a snow ball, are strung upon the green stem like
monstrous beads. The garden, of which this cottage is the center,
abounds in apple trees, pears, quince, plum, and peach trees, through
whose spring blossoms thousands of bees go to and fro bearing burdens of
honey to the neat store-houses under the shade. The lower part of the
garden falls away, terrace fashion, to the river, and here are arbors of
grapes, thickets of currant and gooseberry bushes, beds of asparagus,
celery, and all sorts of good plants to make the pot-boiler happy. Down
by the river stands a windmill, by which water is pumped to a reservoir,
whence the whole garden and orchard can be irrigated and sprinkled.
This is only one of hundreds of gardens small and great where fruit and
vegetables are raised for home use and for sale. Marvelous stories are
told of the weight of the cabbages, of the girth of the beets, of the
solidity of the turnips and strength of the onions that go hence. And
as for apples, scores and scores of acres are being newly set out in
apple trees, and almost square miles of "truck" fields will next year
add their quota to the unsatisfied market. I was astonished when I saw
how extensive and successful was the culture of fruit and garden sauce
in and about Cañon City.
This comes from good soil and easy climate. They say some winters here
are so mild that one hardly needs an overcoat at all; it must be
remembered that though the elevation is high the latitude is low. I saw
a field where clover had been cut three times a year for twelve years,
yet showed no signs of running out; and as for alfalfa, they cut the
crop quarterly.
The citizens think that their town is likely to prove a manufacturing
center. I see no reason why it should not. The river falls there at a
rate which furnishes a fine water power, already utilized to propel the
public water-works. With the best of coal close by, and iron in
abundance only a little way off, I should think the future would see
machine shops and foundries placed at this point; while factories for
woolen cloth, for making wooden-ware from pine and for various other
industries adapted to the resources and market of the neighborhood, shoe
factories and leather-work by machinery generally ought to be
flourishing here some day, since hides ought to be tanned here instead
of being sent wholly to the East.
In the State prison, which is situated here, there is already a
shoe-factory, but most of the prisoners are engaged in quarrying and
cutting stone. The quarries are in the side hill, and the stone is a
yellowish sand-rock, very good for building. The fine-appearing
prison-buildings and the lofty wall which encloses them are built of
this stone, as can readily be seen from the car-windows. Much stone, in
the rough and shaped, is shipped from these quarries to Denver and
elsewhere, and the railway makes extensive use of it.
Just outside of the foot hills, where the sand stone is procured, are
the "hog-backs"--elongated ridges of white lime-rock. These, also, are
being leveled to supply the lime-kilns and also to be sent to Leadville,
Argo and elsewhere for the use of the smelting furnaces as flux.
Something like two hundred car-loads a week, I am told, go to Leadville
alone; but the competition of lime-ledges near Robinson and elsewhere
north of Leadville is likely to diminish this shipment in future to that
point. Possibly, though, if the newly discovered silver prospects over
the hills near Blackburn turn out to be of any value, a home demand may
make up for Leadville's discrepancies. Finally, petroleum seems to have
been found here in quantities which will ultimately prove highly
remunerative. Wells are being bored, and unexpectedly good results are
obtained, so that high hopes are entertained that to her list of
productions Colorado shall add in profitable quantities this wonderful
substance--mineral oil--and the spirit of speculation and industry be
given a new channel for its activity.
XVIII
IN THE WET MOUNTAIN VALLEY.
For some were hung with arras green and blue,
Showing a gaudy summer morn.
* * * * * * * *
And one a full-fed river winding slow
By herds upon an endless plain.
--TENNYSON.
Cañon City was by no means a bad place to stay, and we would have
prolonged our visit to the benefit of our table, had not the railway
yard been so busy a one that there was no rest for our cars, which were
pulled about, here and there, by the necessities of train-forming, in a
way we were far from enjoying, so we decided to go on. At the last
minute, nevertheless, this happy-go-lucky crowd concluded that they were
extremely anxious first to take a run over into the Wet Mountain valley.
One gentleman, of uncertain influence, raised his voice against it, but
was silenced so quickly it made his head swim. He had endeavored to
point out that it would be more instructive to go down to the great coal
mines, a few miles below; and far more fun to ascend Signal mountain and
"see what we should see." He tried skillfully to arouse some enthusiasm
by telling how, though it seemed within rifle-shot, it was really
eighteen miles away; how it can be seen from the plains not only, but
also from South Park and the peaks that surround; how, in consequence,
the Utes chose it as one of their telegraph stations, and the early
pioneers bound for Pike's Peak, saw from their camps the wavering smoke
by day, or the signal fires at night, upon its summit, through which the
Indians informed their companions of the invaders' movements. Thus it
came to be known as Signal mountain, but in this gentleman's humble
opinion the old Spanish name of "Pisgalo Peak" was better. All this was
listened to with a sort of consolatory attention; nevertheless the
speaker was compelled, not only to resign his plan, but to give orders
otherwise.
Grown strong in the lap of the Wet Mountain valley, Grape creek assaults
the red walls of rock that bar its progress to the Arkansas at the mouth
of the Grand Cañon. The profusion of wild vines its waters nourish,
makes its name a natural one, and they adorn its course as few streams
in the West are garnished. These are particularly abundant along the
rocky lower part of the stream, growing luxuriantly upon the arbors the
great cottonwoods afford, and under the shelter of the warm, red walls,
relieving the ruggedness of their abrupt slopes, "as if nature found she
had done her work too roughly, and then veiled it with flowers and
clinging vines."
[Illustration: GRAND CAÑON OF THE ARKANSAS.]
"The entrance to Grape Creek cañon," writes an acquaintance, who was
there a little in advance of us, "for over a mile, follows the windings
of the clear flowing creek, with gently sloping hills on either side
covered with low spruce and piñon, and with grass plats and brilliant
flowers in season far up their slopes, and the Spanish lance and bush
cactus present their bristling points wherever a little soil affords
them sustenance.... About seven miles from the mouth of the creek a
small branch cañon comes in from the right. It was once a deep cleft,
with perpendicular sides, created in some convulsion of nature, but it
has been gradually filled up with débris and broken rock until a sloping
and not difficult path is made, by the sides of which a luxuriant
vegetation has taken root, and the wild rose and clematis blooms with
the humble blue-bell among the mossy bowlders. Climbing this path for a
few hundred feet a side cleft is seen at the right, which seems to
terminate in a solid wall. Following it to the breast, however, you find
at the left a passage made by a water channel, with steps which ladies
can easily pass with a little help, and we enter a narrow passage
between high rocky walls. Turning again to the right, we follow this
perhaps two hundred feet, and looking to the left we find before and
above us the lofty arched dome of the "Temple." About twenty-five feet
above where we are standing is a platform, perhaps fifty feet in width
and six or eight feet in depth, over which projects far above the
arching roof. Though the auditorium in front is rather narrow for a
large audience, the platform is grand, and may be reached without great
difficulty. Music sounds finely as it rolls down from the overhanging
sounding-board of stone. From the platform deep cavernous recesses are
seen at the sides, which time has wrought, but which are invisible from
below. Moreover, the action of water slowly percolating through the back
walls, carrying lime and spar in solution, has coated them with
crystals, which gleam in sparkling beauty when the sunlight touches them
early in the day. Farther up the cañon the rocks do not rise to so great
heights, and the vista opens out into pleasant winding valleys well
covered with grass, but there are several very interesting points where
the action of internal convulsions upon the granite and syenite in elder
ages, when they came hot from the crucible of nature, have rolled and
twisted and kneaded the great rock-masses into most curious and notable
shapes."
These beauties passed all too rapidly, the green expanse of the Wet
Mountain valley opened before us. It seemed to merit its name, for the
Sangre de Cristo, walling in its western side, was the abode of
contending hosts of rain and snow, whose pale, dense phalanxes lent new
sublimity to the noble battle-ground they had chosen; but the real "Wet
Mountains,"--the old "Sierra Mojada" of the Spaniards, the "Green Horn"
range of the dwellers on its eastern outlook--are the ragged range
eastward.
The Wet Mountain valley has long been settled by ranchmen, and extensive
herds pasture on its wide-sweeping hillsides. Grape creek, flowing from
Promontory bluff and the hills to the southward, which separate this
valley from Huerfano park and the drainage of the Cucharas, waters the
center of the valley, and its banks are lined with meadows and farms.
Each winter sees hay alone sent from these meadows to the value of not
less than $150,000. Oats and barley, especially, do well, and most of
the roots are grown successfully; very fine potatoes were transferred
from those fields to our boiler, so that we have the best evidence of
their excellence. The improved appearance of the numerous ranches, which
in one or two places are agglomerated into hamlets, shows their
prosperity, and the whole picture of the valley is one of the most
pleasing in Colorado,--not only in point of natural beauty, but for its
commercial and human interest, for Rosita is one of the oldest towns in
Colorado.
"A legend runs," _vide_ H. H., "that there was once another 'Little
Rose,' a beautiful woman of Mexico, who had a Frenchman for a lover.
When she died her lover lost his wits, and journeyed aimlessly away to
the north; he rambled on and on till he came to this beautiful little
nook, nestled among mountains, and overlooking a green valley a thousand
feet below it. Here he exclaimed, 'Beautiful as Rosita!' and settled
himself to live and die on the spot. A simpler and better authenticated
explanation of the name is, that, when the miners first came, six years
ago, into the gulches where the town of Rosita now lies, they found
several fine springs of water, each spring in a thicket of wild roses.
As they went to and fro from their huts to the springs, they found in
the dainty blossoms a certain air of greeting, as of old inhabitants
welcoming newcomers. It seemed no more than courteous that the town
should be called after the name of the oldest and most aristocratic
settler,--a kind of recognition which does not always result in so
pleasing a name as Rosita (Tompkinsville, for instance, or Jenkins'
Gulch). Little Rose, then, it became, and Little Rose it will remain."
But the metropolis of the valley, and the terminus of the railway at
present is the newer town of Silver Cliff, a town which saw one of the
"biggest booms" on record. The story goes that the first known discovery
of silver here was in July, 1877, by the Edwards brothers, who had
previously been running saw-mills on Texas and Grape creeks. Returning
one warm evening from one of the mills to Rosita, Mr. R. J. Edwards
stopped in the shade of a low bluff, jet-stained reddish rock, which
stood out from the slope of a hill on the western side of the valley
seven miles north of his destination. The peculiar appearance of the
rock moving his curiosity, he procured an assay of it, when, to his
astonishment, he was told that it ran twenty-four ounces in silver to
the ton. In a few days the entire population of Rosita had migrated to
the rock which they agreed to call the Silver Cliff, and were digging
holes and testing for gold, since it was thought there was more of that
than of the less valuable mineral to be obtained. But their efforts came
to nothing; and as quick to be discouraged as they were to have their
hopes aroused, the mercurial crowd vanished, and the black striped rocks
enjoyed their previous solitude through all the next autumn and winter.
Then (this was in the spring of 1878) some sensible prospectors tried
for silver and located the "Racine Boy" and various other properties
right on the brow of the cliff, which have since proved of great value.
This was the signal for a second rush, but the new comers, who dug holes
everywhere and anywhere, like an immense colony of prairie badgers, each
thought himself sure of millions, and held his bit of ground at so high
a price that nobody would buy at all. This resulted in a panic, the
effect of which was really for the prosperity of the critical camp,
since capital now took hold and deep developments proceeded on some
properties that had proved their worth.
It did not take long to evince the fact that ninety out of every hundred
of the holes scattered so indiscriminately over the velvety knolls of
Round mountain and the smooth, hard plain near by, were of no value; and
also, on the other hand, to show enough paying mines to make it appear
that the ore (at any rate that near the surface) all lay in a particular
"belt," apparently culminating in the exposed ledges that had first
attracted the miner's eyes.
The Hardscrabble mining district, in which both Silver Cliff and Rosita
are situated, takes its name from a small creek that rises in the
foothills on the west side of the Wet Mountain range, or Sierra Mojada,
and, forcing its way through a wild and difficult cañon, flows into the
Arkansas river seven or eight miles east of Cañon City. The mountains
themselves are of red granite, which has been thrown up in the wildest
confusion, and which the winds and rains in many places have carved into
all sorts of fantastic shapes. The range is extremely rugged, almost
destitute of large timber, and is impassable for wagons, except where
roads have been built at great expense through the cañons and over the
divide.
The western foothills of the Sierra Mojada generally present, at a
distance, a smooth, rounded appearance, with now and then a ledge of
rocks sticking out of the summit or side, and while on some of them
timber of considerable size is growing, in most instances the vegetation
consists solely of a few stunted evergreen bushes and a very thin growth
of gramma grass. The soil on these hills is generally very thin, and, on
approaching them, the surface is found to be covered with loose pieces
of broken rock, which the frosts have detached and the rains washed out
from beneath a slight covering of earth. It is in these foothills that
all the best mines of the Hardscrabble district have been found.
The geological formation of this rich mineral belt is peculiar and very
interesting. Resting upon and against the granite of the Wet Mountain
range and its higher foothills, and extending down into the valley
beyond the southern line of the belt, lies an enormous deposit of
porphyry, or trachyte, a volcanic rock poured out and consolidated
during the tertiary period. Its width is at least five miles, and its
length is probably fifteen or twenty. Extending into the trachyte
formation from the southwest, and following its general direction, is a
tongue-shaped mass of granite about three-fourths of a mile wide and at
least seven or eight miles long. When the trachyte was poured out this
granite apparently formed a ridge which rose above the level of the
fluid mass of the surrounding volcanic rock, and therefore was not
covered by it. That it does not now stand higher than the surrounding
country does not disprove this theory, because there are everywhere to
be found evidences of terrible convulsions since the trachyte was
deposited which have completely changed the face of this entire region.
The mines here are found both in the granite and also in the trachyte.
Winding through the porphyry, in a serpentine course, there is also a
stream of obsidian, as it is called here, or volcanic glass, mixed with
trachyte and quartz bowlders. This stream, where it has been examined,
varies from a few feet to many rods in width, and in crevices of the
bowlders which form the mass of it were found, on the Hecla claim, some
very rich specimens of horn silver.
At Silver Cliff, and north of there especially, the trachyte rock has
been shaken up and fractured in all directions, and in many places the
crevices have been filled with iron and manganese, which has become
oxidized, and with chloride of silver. This is the free milling ore
which is found in all the mines that lie directly north of this town and
adjoining it. The trachyte is of itself yellowish white; when it is
stained with the black oxide of manganese and the red oxide of iron that
variegates the ores, it is sure to carry silver, though this (in the
form of a chloride) can rarely be seen. Sometimes, however, the silver
can be seen upon the surface of a fracture in the form of a green scale,
or appears in little globules of horn silver. While the rich ore is
discovered in large masses, surrounded by leaner or less valuable rock,
there is nowhere in the chloride belt anything that looks like a vein.
The rock just covers the entire face of the country over an area two
miles long and half a mile wide, and the whole mass of it contains at
least a small quantity of silver.
The theory of the geologists, accepted by the miners, is, that the
trachyte, after it became solidified, was shaken and broken up by some
great convulsion, and that simultaneously, or afterward, silver, iron,
manganese, and the other metals of which traces are found in the rock,
were disseminated through crevices, either in water solutions or
volatilized--in the form of gases. These solutions or gases are supposed
to have come up through cracks in the earth's crust. Such a deposit is
called in the old world "stockwork," and Professor J. S. Newberry, in
writing recently of "The Origin and Classification of Ore Deposits,"
mentions this as one of the two most important examples of this kind of
deposit that have come under his observation. The other is the gold
deposit in Bingham cañon, Utah. None of the oldest miners ever saw
before any ore that looked like this at Silver Cliff, and this explains
their failure to discover its value until recently. The same is true of
the quartzite gold ore in Bingham cañon. The miners worked for years
there getting out silver-lead ores, but threw aside the gold ore as
waste, not dreaming of its value.
[Illustration: THE ROYAL GORGE]